Kraft pulping of Drimys winteri wood chips biotreated with Ganoderma australe

Drimys winteri, a native hardwood from Chile, presents some interesting characteristics that make it suitable for the pulp and paper industry. In this work, the potential of D winteri for the conventional kraft and biokraft pulp production was evaluated. For biokraft pulping, wood chips were biotreated with the white‐rot fungus Ganoderma australe. During the biotreatment, a selective pattern of biodelignification was observed and the wood chips biotreated for 15, 30 and 45 days were submitted to kraft cooking. At low cooking severity (H‐factor below 1500 h−1, 15% active alkali and 25% sulfidity), all biopulps presented lower kappa numbers than control pulps and approximately the same screened pulp yield. Biopulps were easily refined in a PFI mill, requiring less PFI revolutions to achieve the same fibrillation degree. The strength properties of the biopulps were similar to those of the control pulps.